December 2015 – Page 14 – Electronic Discovery Law

Superior Performers Inc. v. Meaike, No. 1:13CV1149, 2015 WL 471429 (M.D.N.C. Feb. 4, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where Plaintiff?s agent deleted an original voicemail from his phone by way of a factory reset but had produced a copy and also claimed to have transferred the voicemail to his new phone and where Defendants sought sanctions and argued that the deletion would prevent them from showing the voicemail was fabricated, as they suspected, the court declined to impose sanctions for the alleged fabrication, despite evidence the presentation of evidence that could lead to that conclusion, but did order that Plaintiff be prevented from using the voicemail at trial as a sanction for spoliation, reasoning that although the voicemail was not on one of Plaintiff?s phones (but rather on its agent?s), it ?likely? had a duty to preserve the evidence and that Plaintiff did not attempt to provide access to the phone or provide notice of the voicemail?s possible destruction

Nature of Case: Enforcement of Restrictive Covenants

Electronic Data Involved: Voicemail

Caputi v. Topper Realty Corp., No. 14-cv-2634(JFB)(SIL), 2015 WL 893663 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 25, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court granted in part defendants? motion to compel Plaintiff?s cell phone records for the purpose of determining her activities during work hours and ordered the production of a sampling of such records from a two year period with an invitation for defendants to renew their application if the sampling provided probative evidence; court denied defendants? motion to compel social media content for the purpose of proving that Plaintiff was engaged in non-work related activities while she claimed to be working where defendants offered little more than their hope that they would find something of relevance but ordered production of a sampling of content from Plaintiff?s Facebook account for the purpose of determining her emotional state, limited to the production of content referencing claimed emotional distress and any related treatment and any alternative sources for the alleged distress

Nature of Case: Employment litigation (FLSA, NYLL)

Electronic Data Involved: Cell phone records, Social media (Facebook)

Fid. Nat?l Title Ins. Co. v. Captiva Lake Invs., L.L.C., No. 4:10?CV?1890 (CEJ), 2015 WL 94560 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 7, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Where inspection by court-appointed specialist revealed that plaintiff deleted emails, failed to institute a litigation hold, and delayed completing a comprehensive search of its electronic files, events which defendant and the court would not have known about but for the inspection, the court said plaintiff was subject to sanctions for failing to secure relevant emails and for prejudicial delay in production of discoverable material and that the court would instruct jurors that they may, but are not required to, assume the contents of deleted emails would have been adverse to the plaintiff, but the court would also allow for plaintiff to put on rebuttal evidence showing ?an innocent explanation of its conduct.? Additionally, the court ordered plaintiff to pay one-half of the reasonable costs of the inspection and to pay defendant?s reasonable attorneys? fees associated with bringing the sanctions motion.

Nature of Case: Insurance Coverage Dispute

Electronic Data Involved: ESI, database contents

Case Citation: Nucci v. Target Corp., 162 So.3d 146 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2015).

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Circuit Court denied petition for certiorari relief to quash Trial Court order compelling discovery of photographs from Plaintiff?s Facebook account, finding no departure from the essential requirements of law, because the photographs were ?powerfully relevant to the damage issues in the lawsuit,? Plaintiff?s privacy interest in them were minimal because ?photographs posted on a social networking site are neither privileged nor protected by any right of privacy, regardless of any privacy settings that the user may have established,? and the Stored Communications Act ?does not apply to individuals who the use the communications services provided.?

Nature of Case: Personal Injury

Electronic Data Involved: Facebook/social media photographs

Pinkney v. Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., No. CV214-075, 2015 WL 171236 (S.D. Ga Jan. 13, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Plaintiff moved for spoliation sanctions after Defendant stated in deposition they took accident scene photographs, but did not provide the photographs and stated all accident photographs had been provided. Plaintiff claimed Defendant?s sole possession was circumstantial evidence Defendant acted affirmatively in destroying the photographs. However, Court would not infer bad faith because it was possible ?the photographs were lost or destroyed haphazardly,? and concluded circumstantial evidence cannot prove bad faith ?without any evidence that the loss or destruction of the photographs was, or could only be, due to a deliberate, intentional act of Defendant or its agent.?

Nature of Case: Personal Injury

Electronic Data Involved: Photographs of slip and fall scene

Lutzeier v. Citigroup Inc., No. 4:14-cv-00183-RLW, 2015 WL 430196 (E.D. Mo. Feb 2, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Addressing Plaintiff?s motion to add custodians, the court granted the motion, in part, but declined to compel the addition of high-level executives absent a showing that they had ?unique or personal knowledge of the subject matter that warrants their information?; Court found that the current ?search criteria adequately ensure[d]? the production of relevant documents and declined Plaintiff?s request for additional search terms except the phrase ?consent order? where confusion existed as to the existence of ?other? consent orders relevant to the case; where plaintiff was unsatisfied with Defendant?s production of more than 46,000 documents ?without providing any indication as to which documents are responsive to which of Plaintiff?s fifty-eight (58 ) enumerated requests,? but where the defendant represented that their production was ?fully text-searchable and contain[s] metadata permitting Plaintiff to identify, among other things, the custodians of the document, recipients, date and other key information,? the court found that the production was ?in a reasonably useable form or forms and/or the production is searchable, sortable and paired with relevant metadata? and thus was compliant with the parties? ESI agreement and with Rule 34

Nature of Case: Wrongful discharge; Age Discrimination; Dodd Frank; Sarbanes-Oxley

Electronic Data Involved: ESI

Advantor Sys. Corp. v. DRS Technical Servs., Inc., No. 6:14-cv-533-Orl-31DAB, 2015 WL 403308 (M.D. Fla. Jan. 28, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: The Magistrate Judge denied Advantor?s motion for sanctions against DRS for intentional bad faith spoliation of evidence, finding that sanctions were not warranted because there was no showing that the destroyed evidence was critical to litigate the case issues. DRS had a duty to preserve the contents of a laptop that was used by an employee who was hired away from Advantor and subsequently fired by DRS after receiving notice from Advantor that litigation was reasonably anticipated. Despite having a duty to preserve the contents of the laptop, DRS reformatted the laptop and erased files that were potentially proprietary to Advantor and in violation of their Nondisclosure Agreement. However, Advantor failed to show that the files contained relevant information critical to the case or that DRS was aware the files were on the laptop. Despite the unexplained reformatting of the laptop, sanctions were not granted.

Nature of Case: Employment

Electronic Data Involved: Hard Drive

Ballai v. Kiewit Power Constructors, Co., No. 110166, 2015 WL 423795 (Kan. Ct. App. Jan. 23, 2015)

Dec 01 2015

Key Insight: Court of Appeals of Kansas found no abuse of discretion by the district court for failing to order sanctions related to the recycling of the laptop computer used by appellant during his employment, as the district court did not issue an order to preserve and there is no statutory or common-law duty to preserve evidence in Kansas; court further found no abuse of discretion by the district court for excluding evidence of recycling the computer; court also found that a chat log was relevant, material, and probative and the appellant was protected from prejudice because the district court only allowed the redacted version of the chat log into evidence.

Nature of Case: Employment

Electronic Data Involved: Laptop; Chat Log

Archive - December 2015